The thorny nature of developing new international law amongst diverging State views again came to the fore in the Sixth Committee (Legal) today, as delegates concluded their debate on the future of the International Law Commission’s draft articles on crimes against humanity.
The General Assembly today elected 14 Member States to the Human Rights Council, the United Nations body responsible for promoting and protecting all human rights around the globe.
As part of its ongoing emergency special session on Ukraine, the General Assembly met today to consider a draft resolution introduced by Ukraine that, if approved, would condemn the Russian Federation’s annexation of several territories in eastern Ukraine in late September.
The Second Committee (Economic and Financial) tackled the issue of sustainable development today, with Csaba Kőrösi (Hungary), President of the seventy-seventh session of the General Assembly, setting the tone by calling for reversing the trend of increasing inequalities and citing a massive financing gap for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Concerned about the rise in global food insecurity and its humanitarian impact, delegates in the Fifth Committee (Administrative and Budgetary) today welcomed the Secretary-General’s efforts to coordinate a comprehensive global response and supported his request for $3.52 million to facilitate implementation of two key initiatives aimed at bringing agricultural commodities from Ukraine and Russian to world markets and countries in need.
Delegates offered input on the Transforming Education Summit, the Doha Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries for the Decade 2022-2031, follow-up to the Millennium Declaration and the 2005 World Summit Outcome, as well as progress in implementing the Third Industrial Development Decade for Africa (2016–2025), as the General Assembly met today to review how major United Nations conferences and summits are carried out and ways to help strengthen the United Nations system.
As the Sixth Committee (Legal) commenced its consideration of crimes against humanity, speakers argued over the need to elaborate a convention based on the International Law Commission’s draft articles, with some pointing to three years of stalled progress, calling for an ad hoc committee that could facilitate a constructive exchange on the matter.
The Russian Federation, by launching an “unprovoked and barbaric invasion” of its neighbour, had trampled the fundamental principles of prohibiting the use of force against the territorial integrity and political independence of a State and cast a long shadow over disarmament, the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) heard as it continued its general debate.
The world is facing the worst hunger crisis, with an estimate of 149 million children — nearly one in five — chronically malnourished, the Third Committee (Social, Humanitarian and Cultural) heard today, as delegates continued their general discussion on the rights of children.
